Columbia starts a trade with with America over deportations of illegal immigrants.

 

Illegal aliens being deported. BBC?US Government photo.

Trump has issued sanctions and other consequences for the country of Columbia after refusing two flights of illegal immigrants deported to their country. BBC. Columbia refused the flights because they were on military planes instead of commercial. In response Trump put into place 25% tariffs on all Columbian goods and has also sanctioned Columbian politicians, revoking their visas. Columbia responded with tariffs of their own while their President, Gustavo Petro, wrote an extremely long rant on X saying he would fight back and somehow seemed to think that Trump would have him killed. America imports coffee and flowers from Columbia but the tariffs would likely mean suppliers would prioritize other countries over Columbia. 

Trump, a mi no me gusta mucho viajar a los EEUU, es un poco aburridor, pero confieso que hay cosas meritorias, me gusta ir a los barrios negros de Washington, allí ví una lucha entera en la capital de los EEUU entre negros y latinos con barricadas, que me pareció una pendejada,…

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 26, 2025

EDIT: Mere moments after finishing this post, news broke on social media that a deal has been made between Trump and Petro. Time will tell if it is legit.  

My Comment:

This is not a fight that Columbia can win. America imports some coffee, flowers and other minor things like bananas, but putting tariffs on them is not really going to affect us at all. But for Columbia? It's going to devastate their economy. We can get our coffee from other countries, they need us way more than we need them.  

Gustavo Petro seems more than a bit deranged. He seems to think that Trump is going to kill him over this, which is insane. That rant he posted on X is one for the ages, it's worth reading the translated version if you are looking for grade A madness. 

This is Trump putting his foot down. This whole thing was over military transport being used, which is a very odd hill for Columbia to die on. Trump, on the other hand, wanted to make an example out of someone for not taking their citizens back and Columbia has apparently decided to fall on that sword.

This is a message to countries like Mexico and Canada who Trump has threatened with similar tariffs. They have been mostly wavering on the issue but now they know for sure that Trump wasn't joking around and that the same thing could happen to them. If it can happen to Columbia then it absolutely can happen to Canada and Mexico. Instead of a trade war it's in their interest to give Trump what he wants in terms of immigration.  

Despite the rhetoric on both sides, I expect some kind of deal to be made. Trump is of course a deal maker and I think despite his unhinged rant on X, Petro isn't so much of a die hard that he would destroy his country over military flights being used for deportations as opposed to commercial flights. Stranger things have happened but I am guessing that a deal is being made. 

As for the deportations themselves it's great to see some of these folks being sent home. Trump is already keeping his campaign promises on immigration and he's targeting the worst of the worst. Most of the folks getting deported now are convicted criminals that are also illegal aliens. These folks should have been deported years ago but Biden protected them. But now that he is gone we have finally removed some of the folks that need to leave. 

Of course it's just a drop in the bucket. Nobody seems to know how many illegal immigrants there are in America, I've heard 11 million to 30 million people. Getting rid of the worst of the worst is a great start but there is still an absurd amount of work to do. If Trump even gets rid of 1/4th of them it will be a huge accomplishment, so I am hoping that he can keep up the pace he has set.